Major League Baseball Season Recap: 1880 League Champion: Chicago White Stockings The National League arguably entered 1880 in the best shape it had been in yet. Only one franchise had left the circuit; Syracuse was replaced by another small market, Worchester. The league’s top organized competitor (at least in terms of an alternative way to organize…
1880 – At the annual National League meeting, the league rejects the Washington Nationals’ bid for admission, electing Detroit instead, although there is no established club there. The Michigan city is chosen for geographic reasons, since its 1880 population (116,340) is smaller than both Washington’s (147,293) and Cincinnati’s (255,139), the city being replaced.
1880 – In the National League, the Boston Red Caps sign Jim Whitney, considered one of the best pitchers in California, at a salary of $150 per month.
test On October 12, 1880, future Hall of Famer Pete Hill is born in Pittsburgh. A standout centerfielder with a rifle arm, Hill was one of the greatest line-drive hitters of the early 1900s. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006. @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IC0gLSAtIC0gLSAtIC0gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@
9/23/1880: Worcester’s pitcher Fred Corey hit an inside-the-park homer against Boston but failed to touch third base and was credited with a double.
Harry Stovey hits a pair of homer runs to take the league lead with 6. Harry adds a single and double as Worcester beats Troy’s Mickey Welch‚ 17-2.
Harry Stovey hits a leadoff home run‚ his second of the week‚ to start Worcester towards a 3-1 win over Troy.
At Strawberry Hill, located on the shores of Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts, the first baseball game played at night takes place under artificial light with teams made up of employees from the retail competitors of Jordan Marsh and R.H. White. The contest, illuminated by lights placed on three wooden towers erected five hundred feet apart from one another by the Northern Electric Light Company that supply the equivalent brightness of 90,000 candles, ends in a 16-16 tie, when the players need to catch the last ferry back to Boston.
1880 – Using three towers illuminating light 100 feet above the playing field, teams from the department stores of Jordan Marsh and R.H. White stage the first night game in history.
1880 – Boston OF Charley Jones is suspended by the Boston club for demanding his $378 in back pay and then refusing to play when it is not forthcoming. In reaction to Jones’s actions‚ the club suspends‚ fines‚ and blacklists him without paying him anything.